Does Neverness to Everness live up to its "Anime GTA" moniker?

Neverness to Everness is the latest game from Hotta Studio that is blowing up both anime and gatcha fans. When it was first revealed, Neverness to Everness was immediately billed as “GTA but anime” by viewers who saw fast-paced car chases and open-world exploration in the trailer. Now that NTE has officially launched, it has the chance to show players everything it has in store to live up to the initial moniker.

Waiting for Grand Theft Auto 6On November 19, 2026, the launch date, the legendary crime series from Rockstar has seen a massive return. There have been dozens GTA clones released recently, such as MindsEye and Samsonwho have tried to capture some of it GTA 6 hype. Because no game has really managed to maintain Grand Theft Auto audience, NTE may end up being the ideal GTA-like for fans eagerly waiting Grand Theft Auto 6.

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NTE level list

An NTE tier list can help players decide which character to invest in first, if they want to get the strongest Esper.

NTE and GTA are cut from the same cloth, but have distinct feel

The story of Neverness to Everness revolves around the player character, known as the appraiser, and their work investigating mysterious anomalies that appear around the city of Hethereau, using their Esper abilities to keep them at bay. Hethereau is a large open world for players to explore, and there are seemingly endless ways for them to interact with it. In this way, NTE has managed to create a living city for players to inhabit, sort of like Grand Theft Auto has done with its incarnations of Los Santos, Liberty City and Vice City.

Scratch & Peek

Identify the wrapper while scraping off as little foil as possible.

Scratch & Peek

Identify the wrapper while scraping off as little foil as possible.

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Grand Theft Auto features found in Neverness to Everness

Open world with tons of side quests and events
Car driving game with the option to buy or steal cars
A wanted system that will result in police manhunts if players reach a high enough wanted level
The opportunity to buy property around Hethereau

On the surface, it's easy to see how NTE compare with Grand Theft Autowith its open world and car culture elements at the forefront of gameplay. The town of Hethereau feels almost overwhelming with its vibrancy, stretching far beyond the Eibon antique store that players call home. Wandering the streets can result in players stumbling upon a unique side quest, random interaction between two NPCs, or even little gacha machines to pull from. This type of urban density and life is not unique to GTAbut it's an important part of what makes Rockstar's franchise so beloved.

Where NTE is most similar Grand Theft Auto is in his vehicle game. Driving scooters, bikes and cars around Hethereau is a major reason to check out Neverness to Evernessand fans of GTAs racing side quest will likely enjoy NTEs race too. NTE also has a desired system which GTAwhere damaged parts of the city with vehicles or attacking NPCs can increase the player's desired level. If players reach a high enough level and are caught by the police, they can even be taken to jail, where they must serve time or pay a fine to be released.

Property ownership and adaptation are other parts of GTA experience that penetrates Neverness to Everness. While players start with a room on Eibon, they can eventually purchase a house NTE through one of five different properties. Each of these traits also come with Anomaly Furniture that players can activate to gain passive effects in battle.

How NTE differs from GTA

Action RPG battle
Gacha mechanics
Supernatural theme

Although they share some features with Grand Theft Auto, Neverness to Everness has a very different game loop. Combat plays out like an action RPG, with players using a mix of attack types while switching between characters to neutralize and contain anomalies in Hethereau. Similar games like Genshin Impact, Wuthering Wavesand Zenless Zone Zeroplayers can upgrade their NTE characters to unlock new abilities and increase their combat prowess with bows that double as weapons.

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s) Medium (5.0s) Hard (2.5s) Permadeath (2.5s)

Gacha mechanics are also heavily featured NTEwhich can be a turn off for some GTA fans who want a more traditional experience. Even if NTE is free to play and has a fairly generous amount of free character traits and currency, there's still the ever-present temptation to buy more with real money. Neverness to Everness also features Character Pixels as an energy system that limits the number of activities, such as Anomaly Zones, that players can participate in daily, meaning that GTA fans looking to sink hours into the game in a single sitting may not be able to be free to play for very long.

In reality, NTE is a mix of Grand Theft Auto, Genshin Impact, Persona and Control

There are definitely a lot of shared features between NTE and GTAbut Grand Theft Auto is not the only game that Neverness to Everness draws inspiration from. Combat-wise, veteran gacha players will notice clear similarities to other popular titles such as Genshin Impactmore than GTA. While the anime aesthetic is an obvious similarity, NTE also has a character binding system that works very similarly Persona 5s confidants.

From a narrative and knowledge perspective, NTEs supernatural themes are a far cry from the grounded, gritty crime stories of Grand Theft Auto. if anything, NTEs story and world feels very similar to Remedy's Verifyfocusing on bizarre anomalous objects appearing all over the world and an organization dedicated to controlling and studying them. So although it's fair to say NTE is like “anime GTA,” it would almost be as fair to say it’s like “anime Verify” likewise.